Lofty inspirations
A friend provided me an inspiration for a blend the other week, she has spent many memorable breaks in Sweden and loved the smell of the forests, with their cool, resinous, coniferous aromas. Having never been to Sweden I simply dug around in my treasure box and spent most of yesterday concocting and making up what I thought might smell of a Swedish forest - cool, pine-y and elevated, lofty!
I had a new batch of Black Spruce (Picea mariana), although Canadian, it possesses that wonderful 'christmas tree' resinous, tree sap, green note - I simply LOVE it. It is as once comforting, deep but invigorating in a fortifying 'deep intake of breath' kind of way, I made this the base of my blend.
I then added Frankincense for freshness and to support that resin note, Cypress and Juniper, which offer green, balsam, fresh notes with Spike Lavender - which has a wondrous, sharp, piercing, spiky quality and lifts beautifully, with Clary Sage and Galbanum supported on a bed of Spikenard.
My room was overwhelmed with exalted, coniferous molecules - the 'Sound of Music' film reel whizzed past in my mind, so I escaped for a break and went to see Batman!
Today, I tentatively sniffed my 'Swedish Forest Reverie' juice and it does smell delicious - 'foresty', airy, but with that jammy-sticky bud, sap, conifer note with a hint of pine needles and some green leaf and subtle earth. Yummy, yummy. I feel like I am sitting on the verandah of a log cabin in the forest hills, all I need is a chequered rug, a dram of firewater and a meatball stew with crumpets and lingonberry jam for dessert!
The blend I made is 100% neat concentrate for my friend to use in her burner, or to add 2-5 drops to a bath or to 10ml of oil for a massage blend.
I will see how the scent 'throws' out and may use it as an accord for future use. Depending on ratios it could be a fabulous Candle blend on its own too ....hmm, possibilities!!
So much fun and has given me some ideas for an English forest blend, there was a lovely wood in Kent when I was a child, the smell was a lot more earthy and mushroom-y, and I quite fancy creating an 'Enchanted' wood/forest blend ... perhaps for the Autumn months (which will soon be upon us!!)